Jack's Decision
by Reader128
Summary: What if Jack could find a way to bring Nathan back? How would he do it? Who would help? And how would he convince the person to help? Pay no attention to the genres... they're as close as I can get to correct. Rated T for stuff that happens in the show Eureka.


**Disclaimer: I own neither of these fandoms, none of the characters, and no land to speak of at all. To tell the truth, I don't even voluntarily watch BBT, it's just something that **_**some people**_** in the house will watch whether I like it or not.**

**A.N.: If it's in italics, then it is taken word for word from the episode. There are not many of those lines. If the italics aren't working, assume that anything you recognize belongs to someone else.**

* * *

_ "I'll see you around, Jack."_

_ "That's it. We did it. Dr. Stark, we are moving forward."_

_ "He's gone."_

"Fargo, don't move. Leave everything exactly how it is. I need to tell Allison. Lock down this room. Don't let anyone in here. Get Jo to help you. I'll send Henry here as soon as I tell Allison what's happened."

Fargo, still in shock, nodded. He didn't touch anything, afraid he would mess something up and ruin any chance that Dr. Stark might have. Jack went to the wedding to talk to Allison and Henry.

On his way to the wedding, Jack made a phone call, "Cousin, I need your help. Do you still live across the hall from that crazy physicist? How do you feel about working for me? You know where I live now. Yes, there are a lot of smart people who live here already, but I don't think any of them would be able to do what I need done. You said he had multiple degrees and knew a lot about a lot of other subjects. Penny, a person's life may be at stake. Is he back yet? No, I haven't spoken to anyone in town about what I'm asking. I was going to ask Henry once I tell him the situation. I'll call you back in a few hours and give you what details I can. Goodbye."

_"Well, are you ready? …Momentous, huh?"_

_ "You know I will always be here, you know that right?"_

_"What's the matter, Carter? You look pale…. Where's Nathan?"_

"This morning, I was sent to talk to Dr. Leo Weinbrenner to give him redaction papers and escort him out of the building. To prevent his redaction, he started a time loop. I got caught in it. It was starting to destroy everything, so he tried to fix it. You saw what happened to him. Before he died, he taught me the equation that he used. I gave it to Stark and Fargo. Stark… Nathan had to fix the problem manually. He wouldn't let me or Fargo do it…. He disappeared, Allison. He just disappeared. I told Fargo to lock down the room and to get Jo to help make sure no one goes in there. I'm going to send Henry there, and we are going to find a way to get him back."

Allison's tears followed him out of the tent.

"Henry, I need you to get to Global, right now. Go to Dr. Weinbrenner's lab, help Fargo. He'll explain what's going on. Take Jo with you. I am going to take Allison home and get Zoe and Lexi to stay with her and Kevin for now. I'll meet you back at GD."

Henry wanted to ask Jack what was going on, but seeing the look on the sheriff's face changed his mind. If Jack was this shook up, then Fargo was bound to be worse. He would find out what was going on from Fargo.

"Zoe, Lexi," he said, hugging them, "I need you to stay with Allison right now. Stark's been in an accident. It's not good. I'm going to go and tell everyone that the wedding is off. You two get her into my jeep. I'm going to take all of you to her house. When we get there, I want you to stay with her and Kevin. I'm going to go back to GD and see if we can find some answers. Now, go."

Jack then walked down the aisle towards where Henry and the couple were supposed to stand and addressed the crowd, "Everyone, there has been an accident at GD. The wedding is cancelled until further notice. I don't know enough to tell you what's going on, but it is not good. We'll let you know more as we figure everything out."

Jack then walked back towards his jeep. Allison, Zoe, and Lexi were waiting inside. It took about twenty minutes to get to Allison's house. She was sobbing as he opened the door to help her inside, and he ended up carrying her while Zoe and Lexi brought in her things. Once he got Allison settled on the couch, he told his daughter that he had to go. She nodded and told him to go, that she and Lexi would take care of things. He hugged his daughter and his sister and left.

The trip back to Global seemed to take forever. He was terrified that this couldn't be fixed. When he got to the correct hallway, he saw Jo, still in her dress, standing guard over the door to the lab. Fargo and Henry were inside going over the equations that landed them in this situation to begin with.

"Jack, we don't have enough knowledge to get him back based on Dr. Weinbrenner's notes. He must've left something out when he was writing it all down. This is physics well above what I can do. We're going to need help," Henry explained.

Jack nodded and got out his phone, "Cousin, is he back yet? Good, ask him… his friends sabotaged the research that he spent months gathering? So, he'll be looking for a new job? Hang on a second… Henry, is there a job opening for a theoretical physicist in GD?"

"What are his qualifications?"

"Penny, I need his qualifications… IQ of 187, eidetic memory, two doctorates, and a Master's Degree. We can deal with his lack of people skills. We need to talk to him ASAP. All right," Jack hung up his phone.

"She's going to call me back once she gets him alone."

"Jack, how do you know how to get in touch with a physicist this quickly?" Henry asked.

"My cousin, Penny, moved in across the hall from two physicists who are friends with an engineer and an astrophysicist. She's called me a lot to complain about them, but she trusts them, or at least she did. She said that they just spent three months in the Arctic and just got back today. It turns out that three of them messed with the fourth's research and didn't tell him until today… after he had already sent his results to everyone at Cal Tech."

Before he could continue, his phone rang, "Penny? I'm going to put you on speaker phone. You can speak now, Dr. Cooper."

"Penny told me that you had a job for me but wouldn't tell me anything about it. Why should I listen to you?"

"Dr. Cooper, I am Dr. Henry Deacon. I am the mayor of Eureka. I am here with Sheriff Jack Carter and Dr. Douglas Fargo, and we need your help. Today, one of our scientists conducted an experiment that ended with his death and the disappearance of the head of Global Dynamics, Dr. Nathan Stark. We need you to come to Eureka and help us get him back."

"Do you not have other theoretical physicists working for you?"

"We do, but we want to keep what happened under wraps for as long as possible. We have someone that you will probably work with, but we would like to hold that off for now because we need him to keep attention off of us. We need an answer now, Dr. Cooper. We don't have much time."

"I will take the job. How will I get there?"

"Penny, are you still there?"

"I'm here, Jack."

"Did you think about what I asked?"

"We'll leave as soon as I can get a bag packed. It's a 14 hour drive, so we'll be there late tonight or early tomorrow morning."

"Be safe, cousin. I'll send someone to pack up your apartment, and I'll find you a place to stay until Lexi leaves, and then you can have my guestroom until you can find your own place, and I'll have a job waiting on you in my office. Have Dr. Cooper start making a list of his things and how to pack it all… he can work on it on the drive up here."

"Deal, I'll see you today or tomorrow."

"Good-bye."

"Good-bye."

"Henry, Fargo, do what you can to get all the information together. Fargo, I know that you're in shock right now, but I need you to pull yourself together. You know what happened to Stark, and I need you to make sure Henry knows everything. Stark's life depends on it. Can you do that?"

Fargo stared at Jack and then went back to his computer, motioning Henry to follow him… he didn't have time to break down now if he wanted to get his boss/idol/hero back. Henry gave Jack a look that clearly said "I know what you are doing, but I am going to go along with it anyway," and followed Fargo. Jack was right, they needed to work fast to get all of the information down and figure everything out.

Jack, having nothing to do now that he had gotten everyone together, walked back into the hallway where Jo was standing guard.

"You need to go get cleaned up," she told him. "I'll stay here until you get back, then I'll go change. Fargo explained everything to Henry and me on the phone while we were driving over here."

"I'm going to go change clothes and get a few things ready for a couple of people who are coming to help. I also need to talk to Zane. Please call him and have him meet us down here. We're going to need his help to pull this off. I'll be back in a few hours so you can go change."

Jo nodded and pulled out her phone, dialing Zane's number as Jack walked out of the building. He leaned against his jeep and took a moment to get his breath back. He felt like he had been awake for a week with no rest. He didn't allow himself to rest long… he had too much to do. First things first, he went back to his office and started the paperwork to hire a secretary… the job was always in the budget, but he had never taken advantage of it. With everything going on now though, he felt that it was perfect for Penny. He didn't like that she was in California alone for so long, and he knew she was looking for a new job. Being a waitress didn't pay the bills, and her acting career never really got started. He would have her finish the forms when she got to Eureka. Next, he called the newly rebuilt bed and breakfast and reserved two rooms. He also called Henry and asked him to get the paperwork for Dr. Cooper ready. They had to do everything above the books or Dr. Thorne would shut them down, permanently, and they would lose Stark. He took a quick shower in the backroom, bandaged his ribs and various scrapes, put on a spare set of clothes he kept at the station for just this purpose, and went back to GD to check on everyone and talk to Zane. The whole time, he was praying that everything would work out… for all their sakes.

* * *

Eight months later, a heavily pregnant Allison walked to the podium to give a speech about the man who got her husband back to her six months before. Her speech was short, but that had more to do with her pregnancy than a lack of conviction in what she was saying. Henry was next, followed by Nathan Stark in his first truly public appearance since the accident that lead to Sheldon Cooper proving string theory. Sheldon and "She is not my girlfriend!" Penny were standing in the front row, waiting for his name to be called so he could accept his prize. To Jack, it seemed like half of Eureka had managed to invade Stockholm for this. He was standing with his daughter on one side, Penny and her not-a-boyfriend Sheldon on the other, grinning from ear to ear.

The day he called Penny was the day that things in Eureka took a turn for the better. Sheldon had gotten Nathan back (and was nominated for and victorious in getting his Nobel for the research done to get Stark back), Allison had married the scientist (and told him she was pregnant in the same day, causing champagne to run out his nose), Penny's presence had stopped Abby's petitions for custody cold (especially once Penny moved into Jack's guest room and had gotten Sheldon to help Zoe with her homework, thus turning her B- average into an A+), Jack no longer had to deal with eight trees' worth of recycled paperwork, Jo was dating Zane (who had also calmed down since he had been given more responsibility and had to deal with fewer people trying to run his life for him), and Fargo had come into his own (he still caused 50% of the screw-ups at GD, but the percentage was steadily decreasing). The only complaint Jack had was the amount of time Penny and Zoe teamed up on him to go out on a date. He was perfectly content ruining Zoe's dates with hair boy and laughing at Penny and Sheldon's not-dates. He didn't need anything else, no matter what the women in his family thought. To him, life could get no better than it was right now.


End file.
